Blog Links

September 04, 2010

Fatal Dog Attacks On People

The other day I received an email containing a graphic on fatal dog bite attacks in the United States from 2005 to 2009. You can see the graphic at the bottom of this post.

The graphic does a terrific job of summarizing information about breed-specific fatal attacks on people. It shows that out of 149 fatal attacks, 55 percent (83 attacks) were by Pit Bulls, 14 percent (21 attacks) were by Rottweilers, and various other breeds were responsible for the remaining attacks. The graphic also points out that some 4.7 million dog bites occur every year (see my blog post of March 18, 2009 on dog bite statistics).

This is valuable information. Dog bites are a serious problem, and nothing can lessen the tragedy of a person killed by dogs, or even being bitten by a dog.

However, before we decide that dogs are just plain dangerous to have around, let us keep these numbers in perspective.

The 149 fatal attacks are over a 4 year period. That averages to about 37 fatal attacks by dogs each year.

Compare that with these numbers from various sources on the internet:

Each year in the United States,

About 50-100 people die from bee stings (Yahoo Answers).

About 36,000 people die from the flu (CDC).

About 40,000 people die in car accidents (NHTSA).

Let's see how the numbers stack up in terms of the chance of a fatal dog attack or the chance of getting bitten .

The 2010 population of the United States is estimated to be about 310 Million people, and there are estimated to be 110 Million households. The US Humane Society estimates that 39 percent of households own at least one dog, and that there are about 78 Million dogs living in households.

The chance of any given person suffering a fatal dog attack is very small. Dividing 37 (the average number of fatal attacks per year) by 310,000,000 (the estimated population in the US), gives us about a one in 10 Million chance of a person being fatally attacked by a dog. This is comparable to one person suffering a fatal dog attack in the entire Los Angeles County (population 10.3 Million) which includes 88 cities.

In terms of dog bites, the chances of a person being bitten are larger. Dividing 4.7 Million by 310 Million gives us about 1.5 chances out of a hundred that a person will be bitten by a dog. This means that about 1.5 percent of the population of the United States can expect to be bitten by a dog annually.

How does this compare to the number of dog bites vs. the number of dogs? If we divide 4.7 Million (the number of dog bites) by 78 Million (the number of dogs), we get 0.06. This means that on average 6 percent of the total dogs in the United States have bitten someone annually.

So your chance of being fatally attacked by a dog is very small, but your chance of getting bitten by a dog is significantly larger.

As far as dog bites go, I think we should keep in mind two points:

One is that any dog can bite given the wrong circumstances.

The other is that dogs who are well-socialized and who are treated with kindness, respect, and gentle leadership are less likely to bite than dogs who are abused and treated with violence.

Owners of vicious dogs, hunting dogs, trained killer dogs etc. MUST take full responsibility of any human or animal fatalities involving their dogs.Very severe fines and even imprisonment for careless owners. Once any life is gone, that life cannot come back. That little 4 year old N.S.W toddler is dead and gone forever.

Pit Bulls are dangerous and should be banned. The statistics speak for themselves. Once again a Pit nutter just looks over and downplays all of the fatal attacks by this menace of a breed.
And msbell, everyone knows what a damn Pit looks like, don't even play that card...

Although I've never been bitten or otherwise attacked by a dog, my son, Pedro Henrique, has a different story to tell. When he was between 2 and 3, he often pulled the tail of a neighborhood dog, a male short-hair Dachshund called Bobby, whenever the dog wandered into our yard. For him, this was just another way of playing with the dog. My late wife and I intervened whenever we caught him in the act, explaining that this behavior was incorrect, that it hurt the dog, and Bobby could bite him.

One Sunday afternoon, Pedro was playing on the front porch with our next door neighbor's son, Felipe. At one point I heard Pedro screaming. When I out to see what was going on, blood was gushing down his left eye. Felipe told me the Bobby had come onto the front porch, which he often did, Pedro pulled his tail and the dog whipped around and bit him on the eye.

My wife and I rushed him to the local ER, where the attending MD determined that he had been bitten above the left eye & it wasn't a deep bite, either. Still, it required a few stitches and Pedro was given a mandatory rabies shot. Fortunately, the wound healed quickly and left no scar. Nor was there any sign this incident traumatized Pedro with respect to dogs in general.

Since then, I've made it a point to teach my son a kind of 'dog etiquette', especially when it comes to meeting a dog he doesn't know (and vice versa), what to do and, more importantly, what not to do.

I agree with the comment above, How many people actually KNOW what a Pit Bull is and could pick them out from 5 other similar dog breeds? A dog is a dog is a dog. Some have been trained poorly or have bad genetics but that can be absolutely any breed.

Also take a look at statistics Actual numbers vs Extrapolated numbers. Most of those statistics are extrapolated numbers which means NOT accurate.

I really hate these things. This graphic is just propaganda for putting a label on these breeds - "DANGEROUS" (in bright orange letters!). The breeds listed with the higher percentages are large with powerful jaws that can do tremendous damage, but they are not dangerous unless trained to be so.

Show me evidence that these "dangerous" breeds attack more than any other, which is really the implication of the graphic. We must examine the incidence of bites for each breed in order to make a determination of which dog is most likely to attack, and therefore be seen as a danger. Take, for instance, Chihuahuas, which I feel are aggressive. A bitting Chihuahua will not cause much damage and may never cause death to it's victim because it is small. However, that's not to say that Chihuahuas do not have a high incidence of bitting.

The CDC tracks dog bite but not by breed, unfortunately. It reported that in the US in 2001 there were over 368,000 cases of dog bites which required emergency care (in ERs). Of those, about 361,000 were treated and released, and a little less than 6000 were hospitalized: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5226a1.htm . But the media and government continue to focus on what make headlines - maulings and fatalities - which tend to be caused by the larger dogs. It really is a very small percentage of fatalities if you take that on average 37 killings take place per year.

I am a Pit Bull-mix owner. In the three years I've had her, I've seen attacks and bites by smaller dogs (in fact, one of them was on my dog, which is a totally different topic - dog attacking other dogs) not the larger ones. When "dangerous" breeds bite they cause damage and the attack almost always makes headlines. We don't hear the stories of people getting bitten by a Shih Tzu on the news because it's not news worthy. Why? Because it's bite doesn't kill it's victim. (but read this about a pomeranian that killed an infant - yes it happens: http://articles.latimes.com/2000/oct/09/local/me-34015

I just want to add that I really enjoy your blog. And will continue as a subscriber because most all of your topics are meaningful (thank you, by the way). But this one is biased and incomplete.